Protecting and securing constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens is the foundation for all state and law-enforcement agencies. These functions are entrusted to us with high trust and require due respect and devotion to the society. This is why personal appointments with citizens have special importance for the Investigative Committee.

Even the most experienced administrator cannot have full information on what happens on site, on whether there is due interaction with applicants, on whether rights of those whom we protect are not infringed or ignored. No figures or reports are able to say what really happens, but can only outline a superficial picture. We work not for good statistics, but to make people trust us. To have true information on whether their rights are respected, we must go into the heart of the matter.

This is why each month the Chairman of the Investigative Committee personally meets with citizens to hear out all the registered for an appointment. People often come to him because they are desperate, when the matter is beyond jurisdiction of the Investigative Committee, but all the other instances cannot help either. We don’t deny that most of the complaints have to do with procedural decisions made (or not made) by this or that division of the Committee. The Chairman assumes personal control over such complaints and decisions are made to set this or that inquiry going. In some cases, it comes to drastic personnel solutions. The Chairman is thankful to citizens in this respect because they help him to make an objective picture of the job done by his subordinates who sometimes do not hear those who come to them as the last resort. It is fair to say that people often come to personally thank the Chairman for help, understanding and support.

During today’s appointment held in Moscow, Mr. Bastrykin heard out citizens who came from four regions: Voronezh, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Oryol Regions. This time the most burning problem was yet again iatrogenic crimes: three people asked the Chairman to bring to justice doctors due to whose malpractice they lost their loved ones. Investigations into two of the cases were closed for some reasons. Having carefully hearing out the citizens, Mr. Bastrykin ordered investigators of the central office to immediately request case files from regional investigative authorities, take over the cases and look carefully into the decisions made. In the third case, the case files are going to be requested from district investigative department and passed on for further inquiry to the Moscow Region Directorate’s Major Cases Department.

We have to state that each time the Chairman has to meet people who have suffered the most terrible loss in their lives – death of their children. Mother of a child who drown while on holiday in a summer camp came from Voronezh Region to Moscow to seek justice. The Chairman ordered the most experienced investigators of the central office to join the inquiry.

Mr. Bastrykin gave necessary orders to heads of Committee’s divisions concerning all above-mentioned cases and assumed personal control over their investigation.

Realizing that not all citizens can come to a personal appointment for different reasons, Mr. Bastrykin has registered official pages in popular social media which also can be used to appeal to him directly. The Chairman and his subordinates in regions use these social media to stay updated on the news which if contain information on crimes often become the reason for investigative authorities to start proceedings at once.

Principled approach to restoration and protection of legal rights of citizens is compulsory for regional divisions of the Investigative Committee whose heads also hold personal appointments.